


thought we built a dynasty forever couldn't break up

by lunasenzanotte



Category: Tennis RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Car Racing, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Developing Relationship, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Found Family, Illegal Activities, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, M/M, Minor Violence, Protective Older Brothers, Secret Relationship, Street Racing, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-12
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:01:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28036590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunasenzanotte/pseuds/lunasenzanotte
Summary: The story began one November night, ten years ago, when Karen decided to steal an old Lada Niva.Marat Safin has a racing crew, and a dream of creating a family-operated empire in the world of street racing. What he doesn't have is the family. Which is nothing that couldn't be solved by taking in some kids who show particular talents, literally off the streets.What he creates could be the next big thing, or a timed bomb.
Relationships: Borna Ćorić/Andrey Rublev, Karen Khachanov/Andrey Rublev
Comments: 16
Kudos: 15





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> There are two fics that I have planned in this universe. This one has to go first, because the other one contains spoilers for this one, but otherwise, they are two completely separated works.
> 
> Please, excuse any inaccuracies concerning cars and driving. I did some research, but I don't even have a driving license for the sake and safety of humankind, and I have no idea how cars actually work.

The practice track that Marat had built on the unused piece of land behind the garage is glistening with the recent rain that’s slowly freezing, but that’s exactly what they have been waiting for. They have to foresee the worst scenario possible.

Andrey stands on the platform above the track, huddled in a jacket that is definitely too thin for this kind of weather, but he doesn’t even own anything warmer. He’s way too used to cold, just like Karen, whose response to the cold is putting the hood of his sweatshirt up. Jelena is standing next to them, wearing a more weather-appropriate fur coat, eyes fixed on the timer.

The car on the track cuts every turn impeccably. The loss of speed is minimal, it practically flies through them - which is mainly due to the fact that Daniil barely touches the brakes, but that’s the point. The car is designed for him not to have to. Still, Andrey holds his breath every time, and feels Karen’s fingers dig into his shoulder slightly.

The only person who is completely calm, or at least looks that way, is Marat. He’s leaning over the slightly rusty railing, watching the car with a small, almost imperceptible smile on his lips as it passes the makeshift finish line.

Daniil stops the car and jumps out, running to them. “Time?” he yells at Jelena before he even gets up on the platform.

“Um, what, was I supposed to keep it?” Jelena asks, feigning surprise.

“Stop being the annoying sister now, how much?” Daniil snaps, a little out of breath as he climbs up to them.

“Twelve fifty-nine,” Jelena grins and turns the timer to him.

“You’re kidding me,” Daniil breathes out.

“I told you, it was either going to kill you or make you faster,” Andrey laughs.

Daniil shoots another look at the timer, and then he jumps at Andrey, almost tackling him to the ground.

“You’re a genius!” he yells. “That’s not a car, that’s a beast! You got a deal with the Devil, admit it!”

“I think Andryusha is the last one to strike a deal with the Devil,” Karen grins, reaching for the cross necklace hanging around Andrey’s neck and dangling it in front of Daniil’s eyes pointedly, until Andrey snatches it from him and tucks in under his shirt. “But damn, give me the keys, I want to sit in that thing as well!”

Daniil throws the keys at him and folds his arms. “Yeah, try to beat that,” he says.

Karen slides under the railing and jumps down on the track, a childish joy radiating from him so much it almost warms Andrey up, despite the cold and early hour.

His time is only fractionally worse than Daniil’s. And when he gets out of the car, he’s got the same elated look on his face that Daniil had.

Only then, Marat unglues himself from the railing. Like he had been waiting to see that it was really the car, not just Daniil’s driving skills. He looks at Jelena, who is frantically scribbling some numbers and letters into one of her countless sketchbooks.

“You’re my little Einstein, aren’t you?” he smiles.

“I prefer Newton,” Jelena says without even looking up. “Or Boltzmann. Or Reynolds.”

Marat just rolls his eyes and turns to Andrey.

“And you’re a genius, just like Daniil said,” he says and pulls him into a hug. “I’m really proud of you.”

Andrey closes his eyes and smiles into the nylon of Marat’s jacket. And he thinks of how close he was to never being told this in his life.

~ ~ ~

_The story began one November night, ten years ago, when Karen decided to steal an old Lada Niva._

_It was parked in one of the worse parts of Prospekt Vernadskogo, and it kind of fit in with the dingy grayness of the block of flats it stood in front of. It was locked all right, perhaps it even had a better lock than a car like that deserved, but it was nothing Andrey and his makeshift picklock couldn’t solve in a matter of seconds. Karen jumped behind the wheel once the engine was running, and stepped on the gas._

_The sirens sounded behind them just as they passed the temple of Andrey’s namesake, trying to get on Michurinskyi Prospekt._

_Someone in the dark sea of windows was probably watching. They never found out._

_Andrey had never been scared more. The cops truly weren’t joking around, and they didn’t care that they were literally just kids. They treated them like regular criminals, with all the shouting and pushing and handcuffs. When it became clear that they had no parents that could pick them up, they threw them inside an empty room at the police station, because they apparently needed to figure out what to do with them. The only positive thing about it was that the room was quite warm, at least compared to the streets._

_Karen looked truly miserable. His entire being screamed that he knew he had fucked up, and Andrey was quite sure that his sobbing wasn’t helping, but he couldn’t stop._

_The door suddenly opened and a young man walked in. Karen immediately moved closer to Andrey, to protect him if need be. Andrey never knew exactly how Karen would go about it, but he was damn sure that he would find a way. An amused smile tugged at the corners of the man’s lips._

_“Look, I’m not a cop, I’m not a social worker either,” he said and sat in the only remaining chair. “Or anything like that. No need to fear me.”_

_“Then who are you?” Karen asked, suspicion seeping from his voice._

_“Maybe I want to be your friend,” the man shrugged. “I’m Marat. You?”_

_“Karen,” Karen spat out, like his own name was poison. “This is Andrey.”_

_“And you’re his spokesperson, I see,” Marat stated calmly. “So, Karen, you drove the car, I suppose?”_

_“Yeah.”_

_“I saw the street cam. Not bad. Not bad at all,” Marat said and smiled when Karen’s eyes slightly widened. The last thing he would have expected at a police station was to be praised for driving a stolen car. “You’re a rough gem, but definitely a gem. You hot-wired it as well?”_

_“No,” Karen said. “That was Andrey.”_

_“Impressive,” Marat said. “And you’re how old?”_

_“Fourteen,” Karen said, putting his chin up. “Almost.”_

_Marat was apparently fighting to keep a straight face. “Okay, and Andrey is?”_

_“Twelve.”_

_Marat nodded slowly. “Fine. Now listen, I have something important to tell you.”_

_Karen looked at him mistrustfully, but at least let him know that he had his attention. Marat reached over the table to push Andrey’s chin up._

_“You too, ginger. Stop crying and listen to me.”_

_Andrey wiped his tears on the sleeve of his sweatshirt, and looked at Marat._

_“There’s no good place you could go from here,” Marat said. “The system in this country is pretty fucked up. At best they’ll determine that what you did wasn’t that serious of an offense, and they’ll throw you in some shitty orphanage like the one I suppose you two ran away from. At worst, they’ll lock you up somewhere until you’re eighteen, and it’s gonna suck big time, trust me. Or… there’s another option.”_

_“What option?” Karen asked, his voice wavering a little bit._

_“It would be a pity to let your talents go to waste,” Marat said and leaned back in the chair, folding his arms. “If you’d be willing to work for me, I could smooth out this little issue and take you with me.”_

_This was the first time Andrey spoke. “You could?”_

_“Service for a service,” Marat shrugged._

_“No, seriously, you could do that?” Karen asked in disbelief. “How?”_

_“Well, let’s say that I know the right people here, and right now, there’s no record made. And if I pay for the damage on the car, and a little extra, I’m sure the owner won’t press any charges. And we’ll all just forget that it happened.”_

_“But you’d take us where?” Karen asked._

_Marat smirked. “Ever heard of street racing?”_

_They both nodded. Living on the streets of Moscow, it was hard not to hear about pretty much everything that was going on there, and this wasn’t really a secret. Most of the things were safer to avoid, though._

_“I have a racing crew,” Marat said and looked at them. “I have different people working for me, but I’ve always planned on making it more of a… family business. I’d teach you all you’d need to know.”_

_“You can’t just… take us home like that!” Andrey objected._

_“Why, sweetheart? Will anyone miss you?” Marat smirked, ignoring Karen’s furious glance._

_“No, but… I mean, we’d like you to, but you can’t just do that!”_

_“Oh, really?” Marat chuckled. “Watch me.”_

_And indeed, merely thirty minutes later, they were sitting in the backseat of Marat’s car - and it was some car. If there were cars in Hell, then this car came straight out of it. It was a wild thing, almost like it had a life of its own. It moved almost soundlessly, and so fast that they didn’t get the chance to even watch where they were going._

_“What did you want to do with the car, anyway?” Marat asked when they stopped at the traffic lights, which he apparently only respected when he felt like it. “It wasn’t even worth selling as scrap iron.”_

_“Just… drive it somewhere safe,” Karen mumbled. “And sleep in it.”_

_Marat glanced over his shoulder. “Sleep in it?”_

_“Yeah, you know how cold it gets at night?” Karen snapped._

_“And it had heating. If you leave it on, you sometimes get a full night of warmth, depending on how much fuel there is and how quickly you run out,” Andrey explained like he was describing something truly amazing._

_“Jesus Christ,” Marat sighed and stepped on the gas._

_~ ~ ~_

_The house he took them to looked like any house in the nicer parts of the city, the parts of the city they didn’t know all too well, because they couldn’t ever go unnoticed there. But this one stood alone in the middle of nowhere. There wasn’t another house standing anywhere their eyes could reach in the darkness… or at least there were no lights anywhere._

_Marat unlocked the front door and pushed them inside. The first thing Andrey noticed was the smell. It was the smell of a house that had people in it, the smell of life and warmth, so different from abandoned buildings._

_They were standing in a large hallway. Then the lights turned on, and a young woman appeared on top of the stairs. When she saw them, her eyes got wide. She looked at Marat and put her hands on her hips._

_“Oh no, you didn’t!” she said. “Marat, you didn’t just do it again!”_

_Marat chuckled quietly. “Boys, say hi to aunt Dinara!” he said._

_“If any of you call me aunt Dinara, there will be a murder in this house!” she snapped. “What the hell is this supposed to mean?”_

_“You’ve been complaining about Daniil driving you mad,” Marat shrugged. “Now he’s gonna have brothers to hang out with, and will finally leave you alone!”_

_He pushed them towards Dinara, clearly having no intention to take care of anything else. Dinara was apparently already losing it._

_“Marat! You can’t just take in kids off the street! Where are some… where do they have things like… clothes? Where are they even going to sleep?”_

_“You’ll sort that out,” Marat said, already turning his back to her. “I need to take care of some business real quick.”_

_“Marat!” Dinara yelled after him. “Did they at least eat anything?”_

_“I bought them a hamburger on the way!” Marat called over his shoulder, and he was gone._

_“Great,” Dinara sighed. “Just great.”_

_The door at the end of the hallway opened slowly, and a boy about Karen’s age peeked out curiously. Seeing the two boys, his face lit up and he made three quick steps before Dinara held out her hand._

_“No fraternizations yet!” she snapped. “Not until I wash these… these two. Go find some of your clothes, we need to improvise for now.”_

_The boy nodded and disappeared back in the room, a mixture of disappointment and excitement in his face._

_“You two, get in the shower, and stay there!” Dinara said and switched on the light in the bathroom._

_“For how long?” Karen dared to ask._

_“Until I say it’s enough!” she snapped. “Looking at you, an hour probably won’t be enough.”_

_Thinking back, no matter how much she complained, she wasn’t really surprised about Marat bringing them home out of the blue. Whether it was the experience she had already had with Daniil, or she just knew about Marat’s plans then, she was quite methodical. She dressed them in Daniil’s clothes that were way too big for Andrey, of course, put some lice treatment in their hair despite Karen insisting that they didn’t have lice (they totally did), and fed them hot soup._

_When they walked inside the living room, they found her unfolding the couch, cursing under her breath. Then she threw two pillows and mismatched blankets on it and looked at the result of her efforts._

_“Well, it will have to do for now,” she said. “Because my brother never freaking plans anything!”_

_“He said he had a plan,” Karen objected._

_“Well, he plans in the span of years. Not hours.” She turned around and looked at them, sighing. “He took it in his head that he was going to build an empire. And that he needed loyal people for it. A family. Not just outsiders.”_

_“A family?” Andrey asked quietly._

_“Yeah, don’t get your hopes up, you’re still not calling me aunt Dinara!” she snapped and pulled back the blankets. “Get in there and sleep, until I count to three!”_

_~ ~ ~_

_Despite her threats, a long time after Dinara switched off the lights and retreated upstairs, they couldn’t sleep. They didn’t really talk to each other either, they were just lying there and enjoying every minute of it. It wasn’t a real bed, but it was almost like a real bed, and it was amazing._

_“Hey,” a whisper came up behind them._

_Andrey almost screamed. Karen turned around, more annoyed than scared._

_Standing behind the couch in the dark was the boy whose clothes they were wearing, looking at them curiously._

_“Hi,” he grinned. “Scared you, didn’t I?”_

_“No, you didn’t,” Karen growled. “What the hell are you doing here?”_

_“I’m Daniil,” the boy said, completely ignoring his question. “You?”_

_“Karen,” Karen said and nodded to Andrey. “Andrey.”_

_Daniil walked around the backrest to the side of the couch._

_“Move,” he said and nudged Andrey, practically squeezing him between Karen and himself. “You two are staying, right? Damn, I hope you are, being alone with Dinara all days is making me go crazy.”_

_“And you’ve been here for how long?” Karen asked warily, like he was trying to figure out if jumping up and running out of the house wasn’t safer, after all._

_“A couple months,” Daniil shrugged. “Like… it’s great. But Dinara is insufferable, sometimes. She’s not standing behind me, is she?”_

_Karen rolled his eyes. They all figured at this point that if that was the case, they would already know._

_“Wait until you see the cars!” Daniil said with a dreamy smile. “You’ve never seen anything like that.”_

_“How did Marat find you?” Karen asked, leaning against the backrest._

_“Um… someone at the police station gave him a call, I think,” Daniil shrugged. “Same story with you, wasn’t it?”_

_“What did you do?” Andrey asked._

_“Well, when I was living on the streets, I got together with some older guys, and I would steal car radios for them that they would sell,” Daniil said. “But it sucked, because they’d blow all the money on drugs anyway. Well, once I was stealing a radio, and the police saw me, so I tried to drive away in that car. I actually made it like thirty kilometers before they caught me.”_

_He looked like he was still damn proud of himself._

_“And then Marat appeared and offered me the deal. The police were more interested in the drugs than the stolen radios, anyway. They wanted me to tell them where they’d find the guys, but I told them I was no snitch,” Daniil smirks._

_“And then?”_

_The smug smile disappears from Daniil’s face. “Then Marat told me to fucking spill it or we’d have no deal, so I did,” he admits. “He knows how to make cops his friends, that’s for sure.”_

_He stretched like a cat and yawned._

_“I was hella bored, though,” he said then and grinned at them. “So I’m glad you’re here.”_

_~ ~ ~_

_When Andrey woke up in the morning, Karen and Daniil were curled up around him, and Marat was sitting on the armrest of the couch, looking at them with an amused smile._

_“Here you are, all three,” he said._

_Karen woke up next, looking around him in confusion before he remembered where he was. Daniil actually slept on, until Andrey pushed him away a little bit, so that he could sit up._

_“Ready to see the business?” Marat asked._

_Before any of them could open their mouths, Dinara’s voice sounded from the hallway._

_“They are not ready to see anything,” she said. “Until they wash their faces, brush their teeth with the toothbrushes I hope to God you bought them as I told you to, and until they have proper breakfast.”_

_Daniil’s mind was definitely stuck on the business, because he groaned in annoyance. Karen mumbled something about there being too much washing. Andrey’s mind got stuck on 'proper breakfast', so for him, the cars could definitely wait._

_They just about fit around the kitchen table, but somehow, it really looked like what Marat was trying to achieve. A family. Dinara put the last cup on the table and sat down. There was a moment of silence, as Marat was calmly chewing on his eggs, going through his phone, and Daniil was spreading butter on his bread._

_“Well,” she said then and looked at Karen and Andrey. “Who do you think I made so much food for? Stop looking at it like you’re in a museum, and start eating, if you want to see Marat’s toys today.”_

_~ ~ ~_

_What Dinara called “toys” was a damn paradise. It was like being in a museum full of the best cars that have ever graced the surface of the roads, except that unlike in a museum, they could touch them, they could sit in them and they could start them; no one would ever told them not to._

_Marat had a blind trust in their talents and skills, maybe a bit on the unreasonable side, even. But this was him, and they soon realized that he viewed mistakes as a learning tool, and never got mad about them. If Daniil got a bit too reckless and crashed a car, Marat would first check if he was okay, and then analyze what went wrong. If the car was beyond repair, he’d just discard it and get a new one. The only thing that mattered to him was what lesson came from it._

_Andrey messed up countless engines and other parts, and at first his instinct was to cry and hide away. But Marat would always just throw the thing away, pull up a new one and tell him to start over. And over. And over. Until he got it right._

_A few days after they arrived at Marat’s house, they were sitting in the room Dinara had set up for Karen and Andrey, while leaving the small room to Daniil as he was already used to it - and she said that moving his mess would take years. But since the boys’ one was more spacious, mainly due to the fact that it didn’t get messy yet, they usually hanged around in there. Mainly in the middle of the night._

_“It’s weird that Marat’s managing a crew,” Karen said then. “He’s not that old, he could still be racing.”_

_“Yeah, I guess he’s won everything there was to win,” Daniil shrugged. “And now he can pursue another dream, you know.”_

_“Did he really win everything?” Karen asked curiously._

_“Are you kidding? Marat is a legend! He won the Mountain Race twice!”_

_“What is the Mountain Race?” Andrey asked._

_“That’s literally_ the _race,” Daniil said. “Just surviving it is a success. If you win it, you’re the best. If you win it more than once, you’re… well, Marat, because no one’s ever done it before or after him.”_

_“But why is it so dangerous?” Karen asked._

_“Because you’re literally racing down a mountain?” Daniil made a face like Karen was completely dumb. “Also, it’s in winter, and all the switchbacks… you get it.”_

_“So traction is the key,” Andrey mused, already thinking technical._

_“Apparently not just that. I’ve never been to that track, but Marat promised he’d take me there one day.” He stretched lazily. “Anyways, if someone’s ever gonna win it more than once ever again, it’s gonna be me,” he said, and then glanced over at Karen. “And maybe you. Like… when I retire.”_

_Karen jumped on him, and they wrestled on the bed until Dinara ran in and dragged Daniil out of the room._

~ ~ ~

The street racing world has many specifics. One of them is that there is no fixed calendar. Races just pop up randomly, or they get cancelled at last minute. There are few events that repeat themselves. The Mountain Race is one of them. It’s the race of the races, the one thing everyone aspires to. That one goal one has to work towards to.

Since they became a part of Marat’s crew, it was what Daniil and Karen have been dreaming of. The one dream they shared, and Andrey was a part of it, but in his own way. He’s never dreamt of sitting in a car and dicing with Death. His dream was to make their dream come true.

They lived in Marat’s house in three for a couple months. And then Jelena came along, who wasn’t really into cars, but a mathematical genius, apparently, and Marat saw potential even in that. While he didn’t care much about whether Daniil and Karen could read and write, as long as they drove a car fast enough, he found Jelena the best tutors in Moscow, and paid for her studies.

At fifteen, she could count the right concentration of everything, the adjustments of the cars to increase the speed, and on top of everything, she was keeping the books and handling the money, because Marat couldn’t really bother. Things that required a certain amount of responsibility were just not for him.

As much as Dinara was trying to create an illusion of a normal household, they all knew that it was all but normal. The boys and Jelena still called her aunt Dinara when she couldn’t hear them; it started as a joke, but then they realized that they’d simply started to call her that in their minds. Same as they jokingly called Marat “papa Marat”, but unlike with Dinara, they did so to his face, and he seemed not to mind.

Still, no real father would take his barely fifteen years old sons to the Sparrow Hills and let them race there every week against all the amateurs who simply stopped by to give it a chance. And every week, thirteen, fourteen years old Andrey and Jelena would sit on the still warm hood of Marat’s car, watching everything, comparing the cars and looking for whatever they had that they could use to their advantage. Jelena would scribble down numbers that made no sense to Andrey, but she didn’t seem to mind, as long as he held the flashlight up for her so that she could see.

While Daniil and Karen shared their common dream of winning the Mountain Race at least twice, but possibly more times than Marat did, and they kept bickering about who would achieve it first, Andrey and Jelena had a dream of their own. Constructing the perfect car, the best any crew ever had. 

And of course, Karen and Daniil would sometimes try to jokingly sweet-talk Andrey and Jelena into promising them that the car would belong to one of them, while the car didn’t actually exist yet, and no one knew if it ever would.

Sparrow Hills, however, were a child’s play. It wasn’t real, it was a mixture of bored rich boys in Porsches and passionate amateurs in old Zhigulis, there was a bit of all, but not enough of the real game. It was semi-legal, widely tolerated by the police, and anyone who wanted to join in could join in. Marat deemed it a good practice for the boys, but the members of his crew raced at a whole different level.

~ ~ ~

_When they joined Marat’s crew, the star was a girl called Maria. She could be a model, probably, and she looked nothing like someone who’d belong to this world, but she couldn’t care less. She raced in the craziest looking cars possible, wore skirts to races and didn’t give a damn about what people thought about her._

_Andrey’s first encounter with her was before a race in Sochi. It was the first race outside of Moscow Marat took him to, and to this day, he remembers Karen’s and Daniil’s pouting faces when they realized that they would be staying home with Dinara._

_He’s just come up with an adjustment to the shock absorbers that allowed the car to better adjust to the particularities of the track, and Marat wanted him to use them for this race. What Andrey didn’t know, however, was that the car belonged to Maria._

_Their first meeting was thus her ripping him from the car and dragging him behind her like a naughty toddler until they found Marat, calmly observing the other drivers._

_“Marat! Have you gone completely mad?” Maria yelled._

_Marat turned to them, and raised his brows in surprise when he saw Andrey cowering behind the very angry star of the team. “What?”_

_“Are you telling me that he-“ she pointed a finger at Andrey so fast that he barely managed to jump back. “That he worked on my car?”_

_“And did a marvelous job,” Marat nodded. “You’ll see.”_

_Maria put her hands on her hips and looked him in the eyes. She stood nearly as tall as him, and maybe Marat was really a little intimidated by her. “Are you trying to kill me or what?” she asked._

_“What is your problem?” Marat spread his arms._

_“He’s a fucking_ child _, that’s my problem!”_

_“He’s the best mechanic I’ve ever had,” Marat said calmly. “And when you win, you’re gonna agree with me.”_

_“You’re only lucky that I have no other car,” she said. “And maybe I’m a bit out of my mind.”_

_The car did exactly what Andrey wanted it to do. It adjusted to every imperfection of the surface, to every slight bump, without decreasing the speed. Combined with Maria’s excellent driving, it was a smooth sail._

_Maria got out of the car, a bewildered look on her face._

_“Watch her not apologize,” Marat smirked, his hand leisurely placed on Andrey’s shoulder._

_Maria walked up to them and looked at Andrey for what felt like a solid hour. Then, she gave him what looked like a ballet curtsy, and walked away without a single word._

~ ~ ~

“I’m still not sure if not going to Sochi is a good idea,” Daniil says, sitting on the edge of the table in the corner of the garage. “We need as much practice as possible.”

“There’s a big race coming up, apparently,” Karen shrugs. “Marat wants us to prepare for that.”

“He’s just leaving this one to the losers, right?” Daniil chuckles.

“If Sasha heard you, he’d punch you in the face,” Andrey mumbles, not bothering to even look up from behind the hood of the car.

Sasha, their number four, has never been a friendly guy, but since he’s been bumped down from three to four, he’s gotten especially sensitive to Daniil’s snarky remarks and Karen’s jokes.

“Yeah, that’d be the last thing he’d do in his life,” Daniil says.

“You don’t have to rub it in all the time,” Andrey says and finally looks at him. “Borna is a better driver, so what? Doesn’t mean Sasha is a bad one. Borna's just using his brain more, and it pays off.”

Daniil takes a breath, but then he looks over Andrey’s shoulder and smirks. “Come in,” he says. “Andrey’s just been singing praise to you.”

Andrey turns around briskly. Borna is standing at the doorstep, apparently confused by the situation. Andrey feels the blush creeping up his cheeks.

“Were you?” Borna smiles. “What have I done to deserve it?”

“Nothing,” Daniil says before Andrey can take a breath. “You exist. That’s enough.”

“Daniil,” Karen says, his voice low and quiet, but there’s an underlying warning. Andrey can sense his protective mode activating. He’ll let Daniil tease Andrey, but only to a certain point. There’s something else in his voice now, though, too. Something Andrey can’t quite grasp, but it’s almost like he doesn’t like this teasing not just because Andrey is on the receiving end of it.

Daniil lets out a short chuckle and then he jumps down the table, grabs the keys to his car and walks out, followed by Karen, who shoots an almost apologetic look at Andrey. Like he’s sorry for not being able to protect him better from Daniil’s sharp tongue.

Borna clears his throat and moves his shoulders unwittingly, almost like he wants to shake the awkwardness of the situation off. “This is the car I’m taking to Sochi?” he asks.

“Not yet, that’s for sure,” Andrey says and hides his head under the hood gratefully. “Jelena proposed some changes, but I just… I don’t see how to do what she wants me to do. But she won’t even consider the possibility of being wrong, so…”

“Andrey,” Borna says, interrupting his rambling.

Andrey takes a deep breath before looking up at him. “What?”

“You don’t have to take it,” Borna says quietly. “Daniil, I mean. The way he acts.”

Andrey blinks in confusion. “I don’t know what you mean.”

Borna looks like he wants to say something more, like he perhaps wants to explain, but then decides against it. “Fine, forget it,” he says and leans against the wall. “What mood is Marat in today?”

“Why?” Andrey asks and wipes his hands.

“I need to crash here for the night again,” Borna sighs. “I had something arranged, but it blew up.”

Andrey sighs. Since Borna’s joined their crew, he’s been more often than not sleeping on the couch in the tiny office adjacent to the garage. He’s come all the way from Zagreb because Marat’s crew was the best there was. He simply went all-in and managed to persuade Marat that he was good enough. Managed to even take Sasha’s place from him, and that meant something.

It also stirred the pot and created such a nasty atmosphere that Andrey sometimes only went to work on the cars at night when nobody was around.

But this going all-in also meant that Borna would crash at friends’ places, and when no friend was available, he’d sleep in the garage.

“I think he won’t mind,” Andrey says. “Dinara might, though. So you better be gone before she comes in the morning.”

Borna nods. Then he looks at Andrey again. “What I meant to say earlier… You don’t have to take everything from everyone,” he says. “I mean the way Daniil talks to you. And Karen, sometimes.”

“They’re just teasing me,” Andrey says. “It’s normal.”

Borna shakes his head slightly. “If they were your brothers, then…”

“But they _are_ my brothers!” Andrey snaps. “They’re the only family I’ve ever had! Why would you even say something like this?”

Borna takes a small step back, like he’s suddenly taken aback by Andrey’s outburst. While it was exactly what he advised him to do, probably. _The paradox._

“I…” he starts.

“You don’t understand,” Andrey hisses at him. “You _can’t_ understand. The only thing you have in common with us is driving Marat’s car and sleeping on this couch, and that doesn’t make you a part of the family. So just stay out of it, where you belong.”

Borna is just looking at him with wide eyes, like he can’t understand where this is coming from. Andrey couldn’t tell him even if he wanted to. There’s something in him that’s driving this anger, and he just can’t step on the breaks.

He turns around and runs out of the garage, letting the cold air slap him in the face like he deserves.


	2. Two

From outside the track, he can already hear the sound of the engines. The track is there for anyone who feels like using it, it’s just grab the keys and go. Andrey can’t see Daniil nor Karen, which means that they are the two practicing, but there’s Sasha on the platform, watching them with no interest showing in his face.

Andrey climbs up, suddenly preferring his company to that of anyone else from the crew. Sasha, at least, is an outsider who is perfectly fine with being one.

“What’s up?” he asks, leaning over the railing, facing Andrey instead of the track.

Sasha is known in their crew for many things. Driving aggressive and without scruples. Starting fights for no reason, just because he’s bored if things are calm for too long. And not actually enjoying racing, but being in it for the money. Andrey doesn’t know why Marat is okay with it. For him, it goes against the very essence of what they do. But Marat is more pragmatic, he guesses.

“Nothing, why?” Andrey asks, looking over his shoulder at Karen and Daniil circling the track.

Sasha shrugs. “You look like someone’s just thrown your toys into a sewer,” he says.

Andrey walks closer to him and then leans over the railing himself.

“Do you think that Daniil and Karen are mean to me?” he asks quietly.

Sasha frowns. “Mean?” He chuckles and shakes his head. “I don’t know… aren’t brothers meant to be mean and annoying, like sometimes, if not all the time?”

Andrey almost wants to cry. If even _Sasha_ gets it…

“Besides, Karen would literally carry you around in his pocket if he could,” Sasha makes a face. “So that’s what happened?”

“No,” Andrey sighs. “I just… had an argument with Borna.”

Sasha laughs. “ _You_ had an argument? Man, Borna really has some talents if he can make you mad. I didn’t know it was possible.”

“Yeah, seems like it is.”

Sasha raises his brows, almost like the situation is amusing for him. It maybe is. Anything that creates ripples on the water is welcome. “Was he sticking his nose where he wasn’t supposed to, again?”

Andrey just shrugs. He doesn’t really understand what it was about. Maybe that’s the consequence of not having any friends, just his siblings and people from the crew that he doesn’t have any close ties to. He doesn’t really know how relationships work.

“Well, then when you’re preparing the cars for Sochi, maybe try to remember who made you mad and who didn’t,” Sasha grins and winks at him before jumping down the platform.

~ ~ ~

When he closes his eyes after everything in the house goes quiet, Andrey realizes that Sochi is the only time he ever spends away from here and away from the rest of the family. Marat goes, of course, but Dinara stays, and Daniil and Karen never compete there. Maybe this year the reason is different, with the Mountain Race coming up, but it is still a couple days that are unlike the rest of the year.

Change of air. And suddenly he feels like he really needs it.

_The first time he left this place after Marat took him and Karen in was a few months after. He woke them up early in the morning and told them to get dressed. When they got down to the hall, Daniil and Jelena were already waiting there. Jelena was yawning and Daniil’s hair was sticking out in every direction._

_Without any explanation, Marat told them to get in the car, and the more he thought about it, the more Andrey was under the impression that they were doing something that should have stayed a secret._

_“Are we really going where I think we are going?” Daniil finally asked._

_“Depends on where you think we’re going,” Marat smirked._

_“To the Mountain Race track,” Daniil said and his eyes lit up. “Are we?”_

_Marat smirked at them in the rear mirror. “We might be.”_

_The road they took up the mountain was quite normal. It was wide enough, there weren’t any bumps or flaws in the surface, no complicated turns… it didn’t make sense. There was nothing dangerous about it. It was even easier than the Sparrow Hills track._

_They got out of the car at the top of the mountain. The morning fog had already lifted and it suddenly felt like they were alone on top of the world. And that was when they could finally see it. On the other side of the mountain, there was another road, apparently abandoned and unused ever since the one they took earlier was built. It was rather a path, barely wide enough for two cars, running down like a long snake, framed by the rocks on one side, and a sea of fallen trees and brushwood on the other. Sometimes the turns were so sharp that they were disappearing from view. In some places, there was a rickety wooden railing separating the road from the seemingly endless abyss._

_“The key is to know this track by heart,” Marat said, looking at the road as he would at an old friend. “To know it so well that you don’t need to use your eyes at all. That you feel it deep inside and you just know when each turn comes, you just know how steep it is, you just know when to do what.”_

_“So… are we starting now?” Karen asked, with a dreamy smile on his lips and a hand still around Andrey’s shoulders, where he had placed it as they were enjoying the scenery._

_Marat looked at them, and suddenly there was a sense of… belonging. Andrey wasn’t sure if everyone could feel it, but it was like finally, something wrapped around them and bound them together._

_“We are.”_

_With an excited scream, Daniil rushed towards the car, followed by the rest of their little group, giggling._

_When they got in the car and fastened their seat belts, Marat turned to them. “If you ever tell Dinara, we are dead. All of us. You get that?”_

_They all nodded._

_“Fine. Anyone wants to get out while there’s still a chance?”_

_There was a moment of silence._

_“Hey, why are you all looking at me?” Jelena yelled. “Let’s go!”_

_Only then, Andrey understood why the race was, as Daniil once called it, a suicide race._

_For Jelena, it was an excursion into the laws of physics - she could feel everything that was going on, her body was reacting to the laws of physics, and she couldn’t wait to put that experience on the paper in the form of numbers. Andrey could observe the car and its needs, the weak points and the flaws that the car that was one day going to win this race, his dream car, simply couldn’t have. Karen was thrilled by the pure adrenaline and the prospect of maybe one day sitting behind the wheel, but it was still more of a childish joy and daydreaming._

_Daniil saw his future._

~ ~ ~

Sochi doesn’t make things better. Not much. In a way, it’s even worse without Daniil’s and Karen’s banter. It’s too quiet, the atmosphere is too tense, and sometimes the four of them just sit inches away from each other, but no one ever speaks.

Andrey walks down the empty beach. It’s too cold for anyone to be out there, but he doesn’t mind. They’re just waiting for the dark, when the streets belong to them. It’s almost like he can’t feel the thrill this time. It’s like something has shifted, and he doesn’t know how to make it right again.

He stares at the waves for what feels like hours when Borna plops down onto the pebbles next to him.

“I’m an idiot,” he says.

Andrey looks at him. Borna takes a handful of pebbles and starts to throw them in the water one by one.

“I… don’t know what I was thinking. I guess… I thought I was saving you from something, but now I know that… you don’t need to be saved from anything.”

“How?” Andrey asks quietly.

“How what?”

“How do you know I don’t need to be saved?”

Borna blinks, and then he looks at the waves splashing on the sand for a long while. “I guess… because you have people around you that care,” he says. “And I mean… you were right. I don’t understand, I don’t really know what you have going on, I…”

“What if you know?” Andrey asks. “What if you… see something I don’t, because… let’s be real… you’ve probably seen a lot more of the world than I did. I haven’t set a foot out of this little world since I was twelve.”

Borna stays silent for a while. The sun is setting, making the sea look almost like liquid gold.

“I could show you,” he says then. “If you want to.”

Andrey lifts his head and looks at him. And suddenly, the feeling he gets is familiar, and he realizes that this is what he felt ten years ago at the police station, when Marat offered to take them home. The feeling of being offered salvation. And he knows that he will never get another chance, and he has to take it no matter what.

“I want to,” he says. “I really do.”

~ ~ ~

The moment Andrey walks inside the house, Daniil and Karen practically jump at him.

“Come here, we’ve got news!” Daniil says, pulling him inside the living room.

“How about you let him breathe?” Jelena says from the sofa, where she’s buried under books and papers.

Daniil just rolls his eyes.

“The big race coming up… it’s in Saint Petersburg,” Karen says.

“On Nevsky! Literally on Nevsky Prospekt! You get it? A race on the main street, it’s hilarious!” Daniil laughs.

“It’s stupid, if you ask me,” Jelena says. “Unless someone paid the police to take a night off.”

“Which might as well be the case,” Karen smirks. “Because you know who organizes the race?”

“No,” Andrey says, finally managing to take a breath and say something in between them talking over one another.

“Maria.”

Andrey blinks. “Maria… Sharapova?”

Daniil nods excitedly. “So… I really think that if anyone can make sure we can race for four and a half kilometers down the main street without getting arrested for it, it’s her.”

“Who said you were all racing, though?” Jelena asks, finally putting down her book. “You just found out through Dinara that the race was happening. No one said who was going to race. There are four of you, do you think Marat will get four places?”

“Exactly,” Marat’s voice sounds from the door, and when they turn around, they see him leaning over the doorframe nonchalantly, with an amused smirk. “I see it’s no longer a secret.”

“You’d really let us miss it?” Daniil asks as Marat walks towards the bar to pour himself a drink. “After you let us sit out Sochi? Are you even letting us race ever again?”

Marat just chuckles and throws ice in his glass. “Well, it’s not really about you, in this case.”

“About who, then?” Karen frowns.

Marat sighs. “Novak’s crew is probably going to be there,” he says. “Novak is friends with Maria, you know that, for whatever reason, so I suppose she reserved places for him.”

“And?” Daniil shrugs.

Marat looks at him. “And I don’t really like the idea of him coming close to you, that’s all.”

_Novak and his crew has been almost an urban legend of sorts in their house. Andrey’s only seen the man once, when he appeared in their garage to discuss something with Marat. Whatever the deal was, it didn’t go through, and Novak left abruptly, cursing Marat off all the way to his car._

_When the boys, who were accidentally present to most of the encounter, asked Marat about it, he didn’t want to discuss it. That was when Dinara came it._

_“Just tell them,” she said, breathing deeply, as though she was trying to calm herself down. “So that they know what kind of scum he is.”_

_Marat sighed deeply. “Well, Novak… and his boss, also… they… dabble in other things than racing, too.”_

_“What things?” Karen asked._

_“Drugs!” Dinara snapped. “He gives them to boys even as young as you are, before races, or after, whenever.”_

_“Why?” Daniil frowned._

_“Because when you’re on drugs, you lose inhibitions,” Marat explained._

_“Because he makes money off of them!” Dinara corrected him. “He gets them addicted to the… drugs… and then makes money off of them, in addition to the cash that he makes off the races. And it’s disgusting, and if I ever see him within ten meters of the kids, I swear to God that I’ll kill him.”_

_Marat looked at her, almost like he wanted to say something, but then decided against it. “It’s like that,” he said. “Some crews are involved in other stuff. We’re not. That’s about that.”_

“So what if he’s there?” Karen asks. “If we’re racing against his crew? We don’t even have to talk to him.”

“Besides that, he would be at the Mountain Race, wouldn’t he?” Daniil nods. “And we can’t just skip all the races Novak is involved in.”

“Exactly,” Karen grins. “We’ll just ignore him. Problem solved.”

Andrey stays silent, deciding that staying out of the discussion is the best thing. It’s not directly involving him, since he doesn’t race himself, so there’s nothing at stake for him. But something’s telling him that Karen sees everything too simply.

In a way, Karen has always acted like he knew exactly what he was doing, even when he didn’t. Like that one time when they were living in an abandoned church just outside Moscow, and Andrey got sick. Karen practically buried him under every single piece of clothing they owned, plus an old curtain he had found in the church, and then disappeared for a couple hours. He returned with pockets full of medicine he stole at a convenience store somewhere, anything from cough drops to ibuprofen, and fed it all to Andrey with the confidence of someone who had a red diploma in medicine. By some miracle, he didn’t kill him then, but when they once mentioned the story in front of Dinara, she nearly fainted.

“We’ll talk about it later,” Marat says. “There’s still enough time.”

~ ~ ~

A minute after it starts to heavily pour outside, Karen and Daniil run through the garage.

“Where are you going?” Andrey asks, looking up from the engine of Borna’s car.

“To the track,” Karen says. “Perfect conditions to put the car to the test. If it can this downpour, it should take ice as well.”

“Water and ice are two different states of one matter, just for your information,” Jelena says in a bored tone of voice. “So no, it won’t work the same way.”

“Still better than nothing,” Karen dismisses her.

“Still better than a Physics lesson,” Daniil says.

Jelena rolls her eyes and gets up. “I’m gonna watch,” she says.

“Why?” Daniil asks warily.

“To see how it doesn’t work the same,” she shrugs. “So that I can explain it to you better, then.”

Andrey laughs at Daniil’s exasperated expression when she throws on a raincoat and walks out. He knows that he doesn’t have to watch it himself. Jelena’s eyes are enough. Then she will transform her experience into numbers, and then translate the numbers into concrete thoughts, and that’s what he will take from it and adjust on the car.

He just finishes the checkup of Borna’s car when Sasha walks in and looks around. When he doesn’t see anyone else in the garage, he leans over the table with scattered parts.

“I haven’t thanked you yet,” he says.

“For what?” Andrey asks.

“Sochi,” Sasha smiles. “Whatever you did to my car.”

Andrey laughs shortly. “There’s nothing to thank me for.”

“I beat Borna after… three months?” Sasha says. “So…”

“As I said,” Andrey says. “You did that yourself. Nothing to thank me for. I didn’t do anything to your car.”

Sasha blinks in confusion. “You… didn’t?”

Andrey shakes his head and smiles. “I prepared both of your cars the same. Because that’s how I am. No matter how much I like you or don’t like you.”

Sasha smirks and makes a step towards him. “And you like me or not?” he asks.

Andrey looks up at him and blinks fast. “I…”

Sasha makes another step, and Andrey takes one back, and then he feels the slightly sticky paper of the poster hanging on the wall against his skin.

“What I’m asking you isn’t nuclear physics, is it?” Sasha chuckles and reaches out to him.

Andrey manages to place his hands between their bodies just a fraction of second before Sasha’s lips land on his own. As slow as his mind was before, it’s very fast now. It’s like something screams in his mind, like a jolt goes through his body and immediately signals to him that this is something he doesn’t like, not a single bit.

He jerks his head back, hitting it slightly on the wall behind him, and pushes Sasha away.

“Hey, hey, hey!” Daniil’s voice sounds from the door, and in a second, he’s pulling Sasha back by the hood of his jacket. “What do you think you’re doing?”

Karen pushes past them, putting his hands on Andrey’s shoulders. “Are you okay?” he asks.

“Jesus, chill!” Sasha snaps, twisting out of Daniil’s grip. “I wasn’t trying to murder him!”

“No, but I’m going to murder _you_ , it seems!” Daniil growls.

“I’m fine, just stop it,” Andrey mumbles, shaking Karen’s hands off. “It was a misunderstanding.”

“Yeah,” Sasha makes a face. “I got some signals wrong, it seems.”

“He’s not interested,” Karen says, looking at him furiously. “In what language do you need to hear it?”

Sasha folds his arms. “Why do you always speak for him?”

“I’m not interested,” Andrey says and holds Karen back by the sleeve of his jacket. “Is that enough?”

“Fine. Fine,” Sasha says and lifts his hands in a defensive gesture. “I’m out.”

“Yeah, you better be,” Daniil growls. “Before it gets more nasty than it needs to be.”

Sasha just shakes his head in disbelief and walks out. Still, Daniil stands in front of the door, until they hear the unnecessarily loud roar of the engine that quickly grows distant.

“What the hell was that?” Karen asks then.

“I don’t know,” Andrey mumbles. “What he said. I probably did something, and I don’t know what, but he got it wrong.”

“You’re too nice for your own good,” Daniil says and throws an arm around his shoulders. “Grow some thorns, Jesus!”

“He’s lucky that Marat didn’t see this,” Karen says. “You know what his rule is.”

“The boys are off limits,” Andrey smirks.

“Yeah, but by _the boys_ , he really means mainly Andryusha,” Daniil laughs.

“He doesn’t!” Andrey objects.

“Of course he does. You’re his baby, you’ve always been,” Karen grins.

Andrey shakes his head, but deep inside, he knows that Karen is probably right. He was slightly younger, and maybe clung to Marat a bit more. Maybe dreamt of a family a bit more than the others.

“Where’s Jelena?” he asks, desperately trying to change the subject of the conversation, and to get the past few minutes out of his mind as soon as possible.

“She’s found a victim for her physics lessons,” Daniil says. “Borna. I think she’s still talking a hole in his head on the track, because he’s too polite to send her to hell.”

“I need to take this off, dammit,” Karen says, shaking the soaked hood of his sweatshirt, as if it could help. “You coming?”

“No,” Andrey says. “I’ll stay here for a while.”

He watches them walk through the door that leads to the room they call “office”, but that is really just a room with a couch that Borna sometimes sleeps on, and a desk where Jelena does the paperwork. A staircase there leads to the house.

Then he walks out. The rain has almost stopped, it’s just drizzling now. He heads in the direction of the track. It’s almost like something is pulling him towards it. Like he’s just realized what felt wrong, and now needs to find out what feels right.

He can’t see Jelena anywhere, which means that she had to go back home and use the front door. Borna’s car is circling the track, but it seems like he’s just doing it out of boredom. Then he stops right in front of Andrey and gets out.

“I came to see if you were still alive,” Andrey says. “Daniil and Karen said Jelena was giving you lessons.”

“I’m fine,” Borna smiles. “It was interesting. I didn’t understand half of it, but still.”

Andrey smiles nervously. Borna tilts his head, like he immediately sees something is not right.

“What happened?” he asks.

Andrey shakes his head. “Nothing. Nothing important.”

Borna keeps looking at him with suspicion, but then something flashes in his eyes, like a moment of decision.

“You know when I promised to show you the world?” he asks.

Andrey nods.

“How about we do it now?”

Andrey’s mind first goes to the unlocked door of the garage, to Karen and Daniil, and to the fact that he’s never done anything without thinking it through first. But for some reason, none of those things seem to be important enough to keep him from doing it.

“Okay,” he says. “Let’s do it now.”


	3. Three

It’s already dark when they make it to Arbat. Andrey had let Borna go wherever he wanted, until he admitted that he actually had no idea where to go. That was when Andrey suggested Arbat. He remembers it as a place he used to like as a kid. It was relatively safe, and yet he wouldn’t feel completely out of place there. There was always something to look at there.

“I offered you something, and now I don’t even have an idea where to take you,” Borna says as they walk down the street. “That’s embarrassing.”

“I really don’t care,” Andrey says. “Actually… I know these streets much better than you do. I lived on the streets for more than a year. I saw everything there was to see. The difference is… who I’m with.”

Borna looks at him and frowns. “Like… I make a difference?”

Andrey nods and sits on the edge of the basin surrounding the golden statue of Princess Turandot.

“Me and Karen ran away from an orphanage when I was about eleven,” he says. “It was in an old monastery, and there was nothing around… a few cottages where some old people lived, but the rest of the people from that village, I assume, already moved to the city for work. There wasn’t even a shop, there was nothing. The kids there, they were… I guess you could say that they were bullying me, but it didn’t feel that way then. It was how things were there, the whole mechanism, younger - older, stronger - weaker… Sometimes they were just mean, sometimes it would get physical… But still, I never thought of running away.”

“Why?”

“Because I was in there for so long, I didn’t know anything else. Maybe I… maybe I thought that nothing else existed. That there was no beyond.” He looks up at Borna. “Doesn’t this story sound familiar? I think it’s not that different from how you described my present before Sochi.”

“But finally you did run away, right?” Borna asks. “So… why?”

“Because I met Karen,” Andrey smiles. “And he was different. He was older, and stronger than most of the kids.And he… looked at everything with the eyes of someone who’s come from the outside, who’s seen something different. One day, three kids were being mean to me again… to the point of me ending up with bruises. Karen punched them and kicked them… actually, I think they’d never touch me again after that. But well, it didn’t sit well with the wardens… so he got a sound beating for it. And that night, he told me that he was going to run away, and asked me if I wanted to run away with him. We were both beaten black and blue, and we were fed up. So we left.”

He closes his eyes for a moment, trying to recall that moment, trying to remember how it felt. Almost like he wants to compare it to this moment.

“And you know… it was really scary at first. First, I was afraid they were going to find us… but… I don’t know how much they tried, but after a month, probably, we figured that we could just put that fear behind us. But also, I was afraid that we were simply not going to survive it. That we were going to die of hunger, of cold, that someone was going to kill us.” He looks at Borna again. “But after some time, it wasn’t scary anymore. It was scary because it was… new.”

“So… this is scary as well?” Borna smiles. “Right now?”

Andrey shrugs and looks around. “Yeah. I guess… not being outside in itself, just… what it represents. If it makes any sense.”

Borna makes a tiny, hesitant step towards him. “Would it be less scary if I… held your hand?”

Andrey laughs nervously. “I’m not sure,” he says. “Maybe we need to try it?”

Borna smiles and offers him his hand. Andrey takes it and jumps down from the edge of the basin. The street is nearly empty at this hour, and especially in this weather.

“Did it help?” Borna asks then.

“I don’t know,” Andrey says. “I guess we need to give it more time.”

Borna laughs and pulls on his hand to make Andrey’s body press into his side. It feels strangely comforting to feel someone’s warmth, and not doing it out of necessity. He’s slept pressed against Karen countless times when they lived on the streets, because it was the only way to keep warm if they didn’t have the luxury of a stolen car’s heating. But this is different. This is something he wants.

“Have you ever regretted it?” Andrey asks. “I mean, just running away to here, where you don’t know anyone.”

Borna looks at him and shrugs. “I know you.”

Andrey rolls his eyes. “But before. You didn’t know anyone.”

“Yeah… it was worth it. As you said… it’s always a bit scary at the beginning. I mean, leaving what you know, and leaping into the unknown. But there’s always something waiting for you there. You never jump into a void.”

Andrey smiles and lays his head on Borna’s shoulder, even though it’s uncomfortable as they are walking. “And someone can always hold your hand, right?” he asks.

“Exactly,” Borna grins. “I’m always ready.”

~ ~ ~

The lights in the house are out. Andrey had asked Borna to stop at the last turn, and walked the rest of the way, just in case someone would still be awake.

He walks in and kicks off his shoes in the hallway, struggling with the zipper of his jacket. The house is silent and the warmth of it is almost painful against his frozen knuckles.

The light in the kitchen suddenly turns on. Andrey almost screams when Dinara appears in the doorway.

“Can you tell time, or do I need to pull out paper clock?” she asks. “Where the hell were you?”

“In the city.”

Dinara folds her arms and leans over the doorframe, effectively blocking his way to anywhere else in the house. Over her shoulder, he spots a cup on the table. Without a doubt, she had been waiting for him there, all the time, in darkness. “If you want to get out of here before morning, better stop being so vague.”

“Arbat.”

“Until nearly two in the morning? Your phone is where?”

Andrey reaches in his pocket and pulls his phone out. Dead.

“Sorry.”

Dinara shakes her head. “I don’t know if it’s fine in your books to just disappear and not tell anyone where you are going, with who, and when you’ll be back, but it’s definitely not fine in _my_ books.”

“No one’s ever cared,” Andrey mumbles.

“Well, now someone does!” she snaps. “I’ve always thought Daniil and Karen would be trouble. Never expected it from you.”

Andrey is trying hard to come up with something he could say, but his mind is strangely empty, save for the little pieces of memories of the past few hours.

Dinara pushes him closer to the light and grabs him by the chin.

“What are you doing?” he asks incredulously.

“Just checking,” she mutters.

“What… I’m not on drugs!” Andrey objects.

“You’re certainly acting like you are!” she hisses and lets go of him. “But I’ll believe you this time. Now go to bed, and quietly, because everyone else is already asleep like the decent people they are. Unlike _someone_.”

She switches off the light in the kitchen and walks up the stairs. Andrey touches his jaw where he can still feel Dinara’s fingers digging into it, three painful spots. Then he switches the light on in the bathroom, and quietly closes the door.

His reflection in the mirror tells him that whatever happened in the last few minutes wasn’t strong enough to take the smile off his face.

~ ~ ~

Dinara is still angry at breakfast. She slams the jug with juice on the table and leaves the kitchen. The dirty cup and plate in the sink indicate that she’s had her breakfast already.

Daniil makes sure she’s gone, and then he looks at Andrey.

“You’re gonna notice that Karen and I are watching your every step anyway, so I’m telling you right away, Dinara told us to,” he says.

Andrey just rolls his eyes.

“She hasn’t been this mad since that Christmas when she refused to take you to church, so you set off to find one yourself, and nearly froze to death,” Marat notes, helping himself to a bread bun.

“You have to give it to him, he did find a church,” Daniil grins.

“Yeah, in some village about twenty kilometers from here, it wasn’t even on the map!” Marat says. “And then I had to fight over him with some ninety years old grandma who wanted to keep him!”

“Moral of the story, always drive Andryusha to church when he wants to, and don’t let him near any _babushkas_ ,” Jelena says.

“I highly doubt any _babushkas_ were responsible last night,” Daniil narrows his eyes.

“Daniil!” Andrey snaps, and looks at Karen to ask for help, but Karen’s eyes are fixed on something invisible on the tablecloth.

“Look, guys,” Marat says and looks at them all. “I… Dinara is Dinara, okay, but truth is that now is not the time for that. With the Mountain Race coming up, I need everyone concentrated. One hundred per cent.”

“Don’t look at me, I’m in a committed relationship with my calculator,” Jelena makes a face. “And I’m happy about it, because I only get to meet guys from the crew, and they’re all stupid.”

“Excuse me?” Daniil says.

“Yeah, you are included.”

“I mean it!” Marat snaps. “I don’t want anyone to get hurt because you’re not focused on driving… or preparing the cars. Understand?”

“Yeah, no problem!” Daniil shrugs.

Karen nods as well, while Jelena doesn’t deem it necessary to add anything.

“Andrey,” Marat says quietly. “Is is clear?”

Andrey manages to lift his eyes from the tiny orange stain on the tablecloth. “Yes.”

“Talking about the Mountain Race,” Daniil says, and Andrey almost wants to hug him for saving him. “You still haven’t told us anything. Like… who’s gonna be there, and so on.”

Marat shrugs. “Well, Novak’s crew gets three spots. They got the win in the last race, which earns them one extra. We get two. One is for the Canadians, and two are wildcards.”

“Two spots, and there’s four of us,” Daniil states. “Karen, Borna, Sasha and me. Who are you kicking out?”

“I’m not _kicking out_ anyone,” Marat says and narrows his eyes. “But it’s between Borna and Sasha, and you and Karen.”

Karen lifts his head. “Wait… what?”

“You two are not racing at the same time,” Marat says. “Period.”

“That’s not fair!” Karen yells.

“What isn’t fair about it? That I don’t want to put you in a situation where one of you could easily kill the other?” Marat asks.

“No. What isn’t fair is that you’re going to let Daniil race, and you’re going to tell me to wait my turn. I know that’s how it’s gonna be, and that’s not fair.”

“I’m older, I should be first,” Daniil says.

“Oh, yeah, you’re _so much_ older!” Karen makes a face. “I’m tired of this rhetorics as well, just so that you know.”

“I’m out of this conversation,” Jelena says and gets up.

Andrey sort of wishes he could remove himself from it as well, or well, just run away, since he’s not really a part of the conversation anyway, but he decides to just suffer in silence. He can’t really take sides here. He understands Karen’s frustration, he gets Daniil’s point, but deep inside he probably agrees with Marat the most. Racing against one another in regular races is a different thing. This is a race where only winning counts. Nobody cares about who was second. And if winning means killing someone, then it’s a price that they have to be willing to pay. Not getting them into the situation is the only safe way.

“At least let us race it out,” Karen says. “On Nevsky.”

Marat hesitates for a while, then his eyes dart to Daniil. Daniil nods. “I’m in,” he says. “It’s fair. Whoever does better gets the spot and the car.”

“Fine,” Marat sighs. “I’ll talk to Maria and see if she can reserve us four spots, then.”

~ ~ ~

The prospect of a fair competition clears the atmosphere at least a little bit. Being in the garage doesn’t feel like walking in a mine field anymore. Even Sasha is pretending that nothing’s ever happened, and so far, Daniil and Karen are playing along. Borna leans over the car next to Andrey.

“I got you in trouble, right?” he asks in a low voice.

Andrey shakes his head.

“I know I did,” Borna smiles. “Dinara is even grumpier than usual, and Daniil and Karen aren’t letting you out of their sight.”

“That’s just Dinara.”

Marat may have built the empire, but Dinara charged herself with protecting it. And there were definitely people to protect it from.

_Andrey can still remember that one evening when they were in the garage, where they spent most of their time anyway._

_Suddenly, there was the distant sound of engines, carried by the wind. Just by the sound, they could tell it wasn’t regular traffic. There was none around here anyway. Dinara walked to the door slowly, and looked at the cars approaching them._

_“Daniil,” she said quietly. “Take the others and go back to the house.”_

_Daniil didn’t ask any questions, and in his eyes, Andrey could see that he knew exactly what it was about. He grabbed Jelena’s hand and pushed Karen in front of himself. Andrey lingered, suddenly not wanting to leave her. Maybe for the first time, he had that feeling of loyalty and belonging, and he was scared of losing it._

_And for the first time ever, something soft appeared in her eyes._

_“Go, honey,” she said._

_The last thing he saw when he turned around at the doorstep was Dinara pulling a gun from the drawer of the work dest in the corner, and tucking it behind the belt of her jeans._

_For Daniil, it was a drill. He sat Andrey and Jelena on the floor behind the couch, locked the door, told Karen to roll down the blinds, and dialed Marat’s number._

_Over the years, he’s realized that it wasn’t that uncommon. Most of these encounters were just plain bickering and throwing threats at each other, or discussing deals that rarely resulted in anything, because Marat only cared about racing and nothing else. But there was always the threat of one of these situations getting out of hand, and Andrey never quite got used to it. He was scared of losing what he’s just found._

Andrey looks at Borna and smiles. “She thought I was on drugs.”

Borna blinks. “What?”

“Yeah,” Andrey nods. “I was… in my mind, I was still with you there, and I was probably grinning like an idiot or something. So she thought I was high.”

“Oh God,” Borna laughs.

“In a way, I probably was... high, you know.”

Borna narrows his eyes. “That means that we’ll do it again?”

Andrey sighs. “We’ll have to wait for Dinara to let her guard down, I guess.”

Borna just shrugs and unglues himself from the car, opening the door. “Maybe not,” he says. “Say you need to check something on the car. Meet me on the track in ten minutes.”

~ ~ ~

Sneaking out isn’t that hard. Marat has retreated to the small office to make the phone call to Maria. Sasha is minding his own business, Karen and Daniil are bickering and Jelena is buried under a pile of papers as usual.

Borna is waiting for him, leaning over the car.

“You have to check behind your back if no one’s following you when you’re on a secret mission!” he calls at him.

Andrey rolls his eyes.

“Why do I get the impression that you’re enjoying it?” he asks.

“Maybe I am, a little bit,” Borna grins. “I like adrenaline. You don’t?”

“When it’s about racing, yes,” Andrey says and looks at him. “Not when it’s about my life.”

Borna just smiles and opens the door on the passenger side. Andrey gets in and waits until Borna joins him and starts the engine. He’s not quite sure why, since he’s got no intention of driving the car anyway. It helps with the silence at least, somehow.

Then Borna leans forward and touches his face. His hand is ice cold, but Andrey doesn’t even flinch. He doesn’t mind the cold.

“Has anyone ever told you that you look like a vampire?” Borna chuckles.

“No,” Andrey says. “You’re the first, and I’m not sure if it’s a compliment.”

“It’s a fact,” Borna laughs. “You look like you’re sixteen, but also like you’re a thousand years old, and like you never get quite enough sleep.”

“I wonder what kind of movies you watch,” Andrey says. “Though I definitely didn’t get enough sleep last night. But… I guess I’m okay with it.”

Borna smiles and then shifts in the seat and also pulls Andrey closer. “Can I?” he asks quietly.

For a split second, the promise he gave to Marat that very morning flies through Andrey’s mind, but he quickly chases it away. He nods and closes his eyes, like a kid waiting for a surprise. Somewhere deep inside, he’s afraid that it will feel the same way it did with Sasha, awkward and _wrong_ , but the moment Borna’s lips lock with his, he knows that this is different.

This feels natural, and good, and right.

He presses his body against Borna, almost like he wants to soak in as much of his warmth as possible, like he wants to feel as much of him as possible. Only when he opens his eyes again, he realizes that Borna is now practically pressed against the door, and the window behind him is all foggy, and he’s laughing.

“Wow,” he says. “What kind of movies do _you_ watch?”

“Sorry,” Andrey mumbles and slithers back into his seat.

“I don’t mind,” Borna says and looks outside. “But you should probably go back. Before they notice.”

Andrey closes his eyes briefly. It’s a painful reminder that he’s doing something behind the others’ back, and that he will probably have to keep it that way, not only because of Marat’s rule, but also to keep general peace in the house.

“This is how it’s gonna be, right?” he asks.

Borna shrugs and places his hands on the wheel, but he just keeps them there. “I guess,” he says. “Unless…”

“Unless what?”

“Unless you find the courage to run away again, maybe.”

Andrey turns his head to him briskly. The thought is outrageous, and scary, and brings back memories he thought he didn’t have anymore. Memories of him and Karen sneaking out of the orphanage in the middle of the night. Walking down the only road they could find for what felt like hours, until Andrey started to cry because he was so tired. Taking the bus to someplace they didn’t even know, and hiding on the seats in the back. And the countless nights they went to sleep hungry and cold and afraid that someone would either find them and take them back, or kill them, or something worse.

He opens the door without a single word and gets out, nearly running back to the garage. The moment he walks in, he expects himself to calm down, to feel safe again, but it suddenly doesn’t work. This doesn’t feel safe anymore, either. He has to sit on the sofa in the small office, and remember how his life changed when he came here.

Marat showered them in gifts. Money was never an issue; they had anything they needed or wanted. Nice clothes, video games, phones, and - of course - cars, when they turned eighteen. In Daniil’s case, it was even sooner, because he would keep nagging Marat for so long that he caved in and got him one when he was seventeen, telling him that he needed to procure the fake driving license himself.

It came at a price, of course. Their house and garage were standing in the middle of nowhere for obvious reasons, it was the same people all the time, no hanging out with friends whenever they wanted to, wherever they wanted to.

Karen was the one who struggled with the loss of freedom the most, at least at the beginning. He was used to doing whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted to. He was used to just taking off and running away from problems. He was used to being the one to decide about his own life. As much as he liked being spoiled by Marat, he struggled with Dinara keeping him in line and Daniil being the big brother in charge of their little pack.

For Andrey, it was the opposite. He didn’t mind missing out on the fun that Karen longed for, he was just as happy sitting at the kitchen table, watching Dinara make soup or Jelena do her homework. As long as the cage was safe and comfortable, nothing hurt and he was surrounded by people he loved, he didn’t feel the urge to leave it.

Until now.


End file.
